Collin wanted to wait to emerge until the pulse of the little girl went away, but his hunger wouldn’t let him wait any longer.
HUNGRY
The pulse was too powerful to resist.
Collin retracted his Chrysalis and his body bubbled as it took it’s new form. It was much the same as before, but his body was more plumpy like a caterpillar compared to his slimmer frame from before. He had wings from a butterfly and from a dragonfly now, but he flapped and sadly still couldn’t fly. It killed him to have to eat all of those soft, weak caterpillars instead of something useful, but there was nothing else in this prison. Now he was basically a larger version of those soft creatures, just as weak and helpless. The body wasn’t all downsides as he tested it out. It felt much more elastic than before. He was able to touch his back end to the front of his head without straining. His legs may have shortened, but what they traded in speed, they made up for in durability and grip. Where he used to have to strain to climb, he could now scale the net with ease. Sadly, he was still unable to chew through the netting.
The little girl’s big eyes watched him the whole time.
Collin stared back in hatred at her. What he wouldn’t give to be able to sink his pincers into her in revenge for trapping him.
HUNGRY
The hunger was so strong, it made it difficult to hold onto hate. Collin searched for food, but there were no life pulses in the cage with him. In the little girl’s hand, though, was a beetle that she held up.
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Collin climbed further up the net until he was at the same height as the beetle.
“Down,” The girl was making sounds for some reason. It was called ‘Speaking?’, but it didn’t make any sense to Collin.
She was holding a beetle and Collin wanted it.
HUNGRY
Collin needed that beetle, but he couldn’t get past the net to get to it.
The girl held the beetle in one hand and motioned downwards with her other hand, “Down, Swirly.”
Collin didn’t get what the girl wanted at all, but he wanted that bug so he kept paying attention.
“Get down or you get no food,” The girl started making louder noises while motioning downward more aggressively.
Collin struggled to understand, he wanted that bug and would do anything to get it.
HUNGRY
In desperation to feed, Collin listened closer to the life pulse of the little girl. Her intent was focused on Collin and the bottom of the cage, but it felt so intense, it was hard to decipher any more than that.
Not sure what else to do, Collin crawled off the net and down to the floor of the cage.
“Good boy!” The girl shrieked, then opened the flap in the net near where Collin had been hanging from, just moments before.
The girl reached her hand into the cage and Collin raced for his chance for freedom, but with his new body, he was far too slow and the girl pulled her hand out and the flap closed before he could even start climbing. Freedom was so close and then gone. Collin’s heart sank, but maybe there was a chance he could open the flap on his own if he grew big enough.
Collin heard scratches coming from inside the cage behind him. He turned and saw the beetle trying to dig into the plastic bottom of the cage. It was inside the cage with him now. The girl must have placed it in here. The way out was momentarily forgotten as Collin’s hunger pulse kicked into high gear and he went wild, attacking the beetle.